The Founding & Future of Takomo Golf

Sebastian Haapahovi was shopping for new irons, but couldn’t believe the prices. Most people who don’t feel like paying $1,200-plus for a new set of irons would probably check the used market or the clearance aisle. 

Not Haapahovi. 

With an entrepreneurial background, he needed answers. He needed to know why golf clubs are so expensive, and more importantly, if there was a way to get them to golfers for much less.

That’s how Takomo Golf was born.

“The more research he did, he realized that the unit cost of these irons is significantly less than what they’re being sold at,” said Sean McCullum, Takomo’s Head of PR and Community Relations.

Haapahovi learned that golf club prices from the major manufacturers are inflated for reasons that don’t really benefit the consumer. Multi-million dollar athlete deals, huge marketing budgets and contracts with brick and mortar golf retailers help sell more clubs, but they don’t improve the quality of the product.

“Our mission is not to be a niche Direct to Consumer, one-out-of-20-people-game-it brand. We’re gunning to be one of the larger groups here,” McCullum said, a mission Takomo believes it can achieve “if we can get golfers to understand that they’ve been overpaying for golf products for the last 15 years, and that golf doesn’t have to be that expensive or inaccessible of a sport.”

Haapahovi, who hails from Finland, applied a Scandinavian approach to golf clubs. With minimalist design, high quality and durability as pillars, Haapahovi launched Takomo Golf in 2020.

“On the back of irons, you don’t see a lot of bells and whistles,” McCullum said. “If we added additional patterning or additional milling, it’s not really doing much in terms of the performance of the iron, and therefore we don’t do it.”

The first Takomo iron, the Iron 101, was released in 2021. Since then, Takomo has rounded out a menu of irons, ranging from the game improvement-player’s distance blend that is the 101, all the way to a forged muscle back, the 301 MB.

The lineup of Takomo irons also includes a better-players version of the Iron 101, the 101T; a forged cavity back built to blend feel, workability and forgiveness, the 201; and the 301 CB, a player’s cavity back that can make up an entire set, or pair with the 301 MB for a combo set.

Takomo also offers a line of forged wedges called Skyforger, and is dabbling into the world of woods. A prototype driver, the Ignis, will spawn Takomo’s first driver launch by the end of 2023.

Takomo Golf Clubs are assembled in the same Hong Kong plant, with many of the same premium components – including KBS Tour shafts and Lamkin grips – as some of its mainstream counterparts. Meanwhile, most of the forged heads are forged in Japan.

By eliminating the accrued mark-up that bogs down so many other companies, Takomo clubs cost the consumer around half of what the traditional OEMs charge.

The challenge for Direct to Consumer golf club makers will always be getting players to make such a significant purchase – even if the prices are much lower than the competition – without testing the clubs on a launch monitor and dialing in their exact fit.

For Takomo, the solution is two-pronged. The first part is on the consumer. Goflers can help themselves by knowing some key information about their swing and shaft preferences. Takomo offers KBS Tour and KBS Tour Lite shaft options in Regular, Stiff and X-Stiff flexes. If you know what flex and weight shaft works best for your irons, you can easily find the best one of the six options for your swing. 

Golfers who aren’t already armed with that information should see a club fitter, where they can learn their ideal shaft weight and flex, and gain some other useful information like any loft, length or lie adjustments needed, their club head speed, and which profile of iron (game improvement, players distance, etc.,) works best.

The other prong is not ideal, but Takomo offers a flexible return policy in the event customers end up with clubs that don’t work for them.

“Yes, we ask our customers to buy before you try, but that being said, there are some pretty good return policies. You can get clubs, try them out, and if you don’t like them, send them back and that’s fine,” McCullum said.